


Skull Rock

by Impsc



Series: Lost Sides in Neverland [on hiatus] [5]
Category: Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kid Sides (Sanders Sides), Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27873358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impsc/pseuds/Impsc
Summary: What were Roman and Logan doing while Patton was getting ready for Pattoncake?
Series: Lost Sides in Neverland [on hiatus] [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997491
Kudos: 1





	Skull Rock

**Author's Note:**

> if you haven't read Pattoncake it's right before this one in the series

Logan was not nervous. But he did need some help for this one, probably. Roman always wanted to do the exciting things. Not that this was _going_ to be exciting or _dangerous_ at all. But maybe Patton wouldn’t want to come. But he had told Roman yesterday so maybe Roman could ask Patton instead.

“Good mooooorning, Patton!” Speaking of Roman.

Logan carefully wrapped his map in several large leaves and put it in a small bag to carry with him, along with some fruit, as Roman talked to Patton, who had apparently fallen on the floor after being yelled into wakefulness. Someone should really talk to Roman about that.

“Okay! We’ll come back for lunch or maybe dinner probably!” Roman bounced over to Logan, who was now ready to go.

Alright, presumably Patton was staying behind. “Good day, then, Patton,” said Logan and he and Roman went out the trapdoor.

“Okay, so where’re we going, nerd?” said Roman the second his feet touched the ground.

“Today, we are going to the large rock that is shaped largely like a skull. I’ve called it Skull Rock on the map.” Logan headed in the direction of the beach and Roman followed, taking his sword out to just swing around and Logan decided to walk further away.

“We really need to work on your naming skills, Logan.” Roman moved up to walk next to Logan again.

“All right, have you come up with any names for the “villain’s lair” yet?” He dodged the sword and moved away again.

Roman bounced forward once more. “Okay look, the villain’s name has to be perfect, so it’s going to take a little longer!”

“Ahhh!” Logan dodged again, nearly getting hit this time. “If you don’t stop that I’m going to confiscate your sword!”

“I don’t know what coficate means!”

“Didn’t you read my dictionary?”

“I skimmed it!”

“Well you should read it more thoroughly so I can insult you properly next time!”

* * *

By the time they reached Skull Rock they were walking several feet away from each other. Of course, they hadn’t actually reached it yet. This was just the part that Logan hated. Not only was Skull Rock more of a cave, but it was quite a ways off of the island, and actually getting there was a bit of a challenge.

Roman jumped ahead, as usual, hopping from rock to small rock. “Come on, specs, you scared?” The path to Skull rock was doable without swimming, but it was difficult to do without falling in the water, which was why Logan had wrapped his map in several banana leaves, just in case.

“No, I am simply being cautious!” Logan clutched his bag to his chest and carefully stepped along the path, nearly slipping several times.

Roman reached the end of the path several feet ahead of Logan and turned around to face him, seeing him balanced right before one of the longer jumps between rocks. “Ugh, stop worrying about that stupid map! Just jump!”

“My map is _not stupid_ , thank you, and you can wait for a few seconds while I take my time being careful!” Logan finished the rest of the path and glared at Roman. “ _Okay_. Now that we’re here, your job is to scout ahead for any danger while I make a note of the layout of the caves. You can just stay ahead of me-“

“Oh so I just have to wait for you to finish writing down all of your nerd stuff-“

“It’s not nerd stuff-“

“Why did you even wanna come here if you were just going to look at your dumb map the whole time-“

“Why did _you_ want to come if you were just going to shout at me-“

“Well I’m going to go “count” or whatever it is you said-“

“It’s scout, it’s not that hard to understand what I’m saying-“

“Blah, blah, blah, can’t hear you!-“

“Stop being childish-“

“I _am_ a child, and so are you-“

“Look, you said you were going to _go_ -“

“Fine! I’m _going_!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

Logan could hear Roman banging his sword all along the cave walls as he stomped away. Well, it wasn’t like there was even a need for scouting anyway anymore with all of their shouting. Anything in the caves would have either run away or definitely knew they were there at this point.

He unwrapped and unrolled his map and spread it out on a rock. One of the corners curled up and he pushed it down, but as soon as he did another corner popped up, so he pushed that down, and then the first corner popped up again. He held them down with both hands and the bottom of the map rolled up and hit him in the face. Logan yelled in frustration and tore the map off his face realizing too late that his sharp motion had made a small tear in the bottom of it. Argh! This was all _Roman’s_ fault! He’d just wanted his _help_ because Roman was better at the dangerous things than he was but then he had to go and be so _mean_ about the map-

Logan felt tears pricking at the edge of his eyes and he stopped, breath catching in his throat. He sniffed and wiped his face under his glasses. He wasn’t _crying_ , he wasn’t _upset_ , he was _fine_ , Roman was just the _worst_ -

He took a few more deep breaths and tried to calm down, wiping his face one more time, and finding a few rocks to flatten out the map with. Okay, so, Skull Rock. Was it a bad name? Not important. He looked around. Most of the rock was encompassed by the biggest cave, that Logan was currently in. There was also the two large holes near the top of the entrance, and the entrance itself, or the eyes and mouth of the skull. The bottom of the cave was filled with water, since the “mouth” opened up straight into the ocean. Logan wondered how deep the water was in the cave, if it just went all the way down to the ocean floor or if there was a bottom to the cave. He was studying the water when- Oh. Oh no. That was… big. Logan grabbed his things as quickly as he could and ran off to find Roman.

* * *

Roman slammed his sword on the walls as loudly as he could until he was pretty sure he was far enough away that Logan couldn’t hear him anymore, at which point he threw the sword and himself on the ground and began to cry. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t as smart as Logan! He didn’t have to use all the fancy words all the time! And what was the point of the map, even though it was so big and fancy too, when it was so much easier to just remember where you were going! Logan couldn’t even name things properly, even with all the big words he knew- and he just- he just! He was so frustrating!

He kept crying, his breath hitching, making a mess of his face and shirt and wishing that Patton were here. _He_ would know what to say, he always did, Roman always made a mess of things and now Logan probably didn’t want to be his friend anymore-

Oh _no_! What if Logan didn’t want to be his friend anymore?! What if he didn’t even like him anymore?! Roman sobbed even louder in distress. He had to find him right now and say sorry! He hiccupped and looked down at his mess of a shirt, thinking his face couldn’t be much better. He stood up, picked up the sword, and tried to wipe off his face and nose on his sleeves and the rest of his shirt, sniffling and still crying a little. He turned around and smacked face first into Logan.

Logan, who had been focused on making sure nothing was following him up the passage, didn’t see Roman either until he ran straight into him, which caused everything that both of them were holding to go scattering all over the floor. They both spoke at the same time.

“Roman, look, I’m sorry, but-“

“Logan! I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean-”

They stopped and tried again.

“Roman, wait-“

“Logan, I-“

They both stopped and then opened their mouths to speak again, and Logan hesitated, and Roman said, to Logan’s surprise, “Oh, no, you go first.”

“Oh. Well. Um.” Logan noticed that Roman’s eyes were a bit red, and that his shirt was a bit wrinkled and wet. Had he been crying too? Why would he… “Uh, well, I don’t know if you’ve done any scouting,” Roman sniffed a little and Logan changed topic rapidly, “but that’s okay! Um, but I need your help because there’s-“

“You need my help!?” Maybe he does still like me! Thought Roman with hope. Then he saw Logan starting to get frustrated again. “Oh, wait, sorry, you weren’t done.”

Logan quickly tried to control his expression. “I- i-it’s okay, Roman, but we really should go because there’s a problem at the entrance and I don’t know what we can do about it but I thought you might, with your sword and everything.” Logan moved to pick up his map and leaves and Roman picked up his sword and swung it, carefully so he didn’t hit Logan.

“Oh, yeah, I can help with my sword, but you’re the idea guy, I can’t do that, I can only hit things good.”

“Oh, no, Roman, uh, you can do more things than just hit stuff.” Doesn’t he know that? “I thought all I did was “dumb nerd stuff”. Logan made air quotes with his fingers as much as he could with the map and leaves in his arms.

Roman almost started crying again. He almost forgot to say sorry! “Logan, Logan, I didn’t mean to say all those mean things about your map, I just wanted to get going and you were just being slow- no wait, I mean, I just, I’m sorry _, your map is so cool please don’t be mad at me I still want to be friends_!” Roman was crying again, now, he couldn’t really stop.

Uh, oh. Logan didn’t really know what to do now. He just sort of stood for a second and then set his map and leaves on the ground and rather stiffly wrapped his arms around Roman, who immediately collapsed into his arms. Logan awkwardly patted Roman’s back a few times. Maybe he should say something. “Of course we’re still friends, Roman-“ Roman sobbed even louder, “It’s okay, I’m sorry for yelling, but it’s really fine. Um…” Logan trailed off, and Roman held on and cried himself out for a minute.

Then Roman sniffled and said, “Patton’s way better and this kind of thing, hug?”

Logan smiled. “Patton probably would have made us hug it out a while ago, and cried just as much, too. Are you alright, now?”

Roman laughed a little and wiped his face on his sleeves again and lifted his sword. “I think so. Uh, weren’t you coming to tell me about something?”

“Oh, right! Come on, you need to see.” Logan picked up his things again and they both headed to the mouth of the cave.

Logan scanned the surface of the water. “There!”

“Where?”

“Where I’m pointing! Also shhh!”

“You shhh!”

Roman looked where Logan was pointing, and then he saw it. Ripples in the water that were _way_ to far apart. Then he grabbed Logan and yanked him back from the water as the ripples turned sharply in their direction. “ _Logan_!” Roman hissed, “I thought you meant there was like a big bird or something, not _The Crocodile_!” Logan had barely sounded concerned before when he said it was a problem!

They both hid quickly behind a large rock just as the creature dragged itself out of the water. It had only moved about halfway onto the rock, but the part they could see was still bigger than both boys together.

“ _What are we gonna do!_ ” whispered Roman. “It’s sitting right by the way in, how are we gonna get out?”

“I have no idea!” Logan whispered back. “I don’t have any books on crocodiles, I don’t have a plan, you’re better at improvising, that’s why I went to get you, that’s why I asked you to come, because you’re better at this sort of thing!”

“Oh! Uh…” Roman looked at Logan and then followed his gaze to the crocodile. Nice that Logan believed in him so much, but mostly his plans just involved whacking the bad thing with his sword, which had become a lot easier recently now that his sword was real and not wood. But still, his sword might have been just a sewing needle compared to _The Crocodile_. He watched Logan’s fingers tighten on his map as The Crocodile moved a few more inches up the rock. Well he had to come up with something! Uh… mmmm… Roman looked around at the cave they were in. It was pretty big. But… Oh! “Logan.”

“Yes?” Logan kept his eyes on The Crocodile.

“Do you think you can help me find the most echoey part of the caves?”

This made Logan turn to face Roman. “What? Why? It’ll hear us even more then!”

“Trust me, I’ve got a plan.”

“Okay.”

* * *

They carefully went around the caves around the edges of the main one, Logan taking note of how they were laid out for his map later, and Roman testing the echo of them with light taps of his sword and listening for The Crocodile all the while. Eventually they found a perfect echoey outcropping, near the top of the skull and just opening out into the main cave. They could see The Crocodile lounging several feet below them, now fully out of the water.

“Okay.” Roman held his sword tightly. “Logan, you might want to wrap up your map.”

Logan did so, eyes focused on The Crocodile again.

“Okay.” Roman took a deep breath. “Now cover your ears.”

“Wait, why-“

Roman _screeched_. Logan slammed his hands over his ears after quickly putting the wrapped up map into his bag as the cave filled with sound, loud enough to even cause a few rocks to fall from the ceiling. The Crocodile was roaring now too, adding to the sound even more. It thrashed around as it became more agitated, trying to find the source of the noise.

Then the monster turned its head towards them. Logan’s eyes were closed in a futile effort to block out the noise, but Roman was looking, and still yelling, because what it did next was crucial for his plan. And so Roman was paying attention as it glared at him with one, huge, yellow eye. Roman swore it was glowing, the stare was so intense, and he could feel its anger, even all the way across the cave.

Then the gaze was broken as it moved with more speed than Roman would have thought it could directly into the caves, presumably to make its way towards them.

Time to go.

Roman stopped screaming and stepped toward the edge of the ledge they were standing on and looked over. He turned back to Logan, who had dropped his hands and opened his eyes when the noise had stopped. Roman held out his hand. “Do you trust me?”

“What?”

“Do you trust me?”

Logan still felt apprehensive, but he still took Roman’s hand.

Then Roman pulled both of them off the edge of the cliff and they both fell into the water, screaming as they went, Logan with fear and surprise and Roman with determination. They landed with a loud splash. As soon as they both surfaced, Roman whisper yelled, “Okay, go, go, go, before it comes back, hurry!” Hopefully The Crocodile wasn’t smart enough to turn around and come back the way it came!

Both boys swam as fast as they could, out the mouth of the cave and straight for the shore, hearing the frustrated roars of The Crocodile behind them.

* * *

Once they reached the beach they ran for a while, just to be safe. When they reached what they thought was probably a safe clearing, they both collapsed on the ground, breathing hard. Once Roman caught his breath, he said, “Well that was fun, huh?”

Logan laughed, still trying to catch his. “Fun?” He turned to look at Roman, who was kind of laughing too. He lay back to stare at the sky again. “Yeah. Yeah it kind of was.”

* * *

They were both kind of tired and still very wet from their swim by the time they got back to the treehouse, but Patton had a game prepared for them, so they put away their things to play one more time before bed.

**Author's Note:**

> there's always a lot of yelling with these two but they're learning


End file.
